Curt Gooch

About Curt Gooch

Gooch found his passion for agriculture early in life and has been fortunate to work professionally for over 30 years serving the US dairy industry and the greater agricultural community. His unique combination of ag upbringing/on-farm employment experience, professional preparation and practice, and industry sustainability leadership has resulted in positive impacts at the farm, milkshed, state, regional, and national levels. Working in the US and abroad to contribute towards dairy environmental, economic, and social sustainability, he is razor focused on helping position dairy to be part of One Health - healthy for animals, humans, and the planet. Gooch has extensive expertise in quantifying the environmental impact of animal agriculture; current focus on biogenic and deep sequestered fossil fuel emissions and offsets from milk production (cradle to farm gate) that include cattle, feed production, manure handling, and energy. Leadership includes service on the Innovation Center for US Dairy Environmental Stewardship Committee, the National Milk Producers Environmental Task Force, and the PRO-DAIRY Dairy Environmental Systems program at Cornell University for 23 years. Curt highly values strategic partners and resulting outcomes. In 2021, Dr. Roger Cady and himself developed the strongest approach for US dairy to measure its cradle to farm gate GHGs for use in 2025 progress reporting toward the 2050 GHG neutrality goal; Karl Czymmek and Gooch led the US dairy education effort about reportable air emissions in \'04-\'05 in response to an opportunity for animal agriculture to participate in an EPA agreement where lawsuits would discontinue, and animal agriculture would study air emissions and report findings. Gooch was the PI for the northeast dairy studied under this agreement, which was successful because of partnerships with dairy farmers, EPA, and PIs across the country concurrently studying the same emissions from other dairy farms, swine barns, and poultry houses. Gooch was awarded $millions in competitive grant funding from Federal, state, local, and private entities. Sponsored projects strategically target at closing knowledge gaps and transferring findings to stakeholders. He is well published and has presented at 100s of conference events and meetings/educational programs. Gooch has performed countless farm consultations and consulting projects including helping many farmers/business partners develop viable renewable natural gas projects. He has extensive project management experience, serving agriculture as a Project Engineer for 9 years.

Experience

1. Sustainable Dairy Product Owner

   Truterra, Llc

   Nov 2021 — Present · Arden Hills, MN, US

   Curt leads the development of LCA compliant Dairy Sustainability Products; current focus is on cradle to farm gate (Enteric, Feed, Manure, and Energy) GHG emissions and emission avoidance quantifications for pooled milk (Truterra Scope 3 Process) and individual farms (Truterra On-farm Tool). Strategically develop customer service provider platform and staffing for product utilization to conduct milk plant, cooperative, and consumer package goods companies (CPGs) Scope 3 assessments, develop/maintain corporate road maps for Scope 3/SBTi, goals, and to conduct individual farm assessments, scenario analyses, and develop carbon credits. Support coast-to-coast customer funded on-farm GHG reduction projects through leadership and SME. Educate corporate leadership about on-farm sustainability and lead direction of Scope 3 reduction methods and associated key performance indicators (KPIs). Collaborate with the Land O’Lakes Director of Operations Sustainability on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Hasten U.S. dairy industry’s progress toward sustainability/regenerative agriculture through collaboration with leading dairy farmers and allied advisors, the Innovation Center for US Dairy, and the Sustainable Agricultural Initiative (SAI) Platform.

Education

• University of Maryland

  BS, Agricultural Engineering

  1983 — 1988

• University of Maryland

  MS, Biological Resources Engineering

  1992 — 1997